This week we learned how to wear a suit by the pool and how to cut a young woman's hair with a pair of kitchen scissors as Don and Pete made it to LA, and the prospect of a Dylan date with Kurt went the only way it could for Peggy.

"Why would you deny yourself, something you want?"

We first saw Don last night in LA in his grey flannel suit at the side of the pool. Surely even he can't be that cool. We soon found out that TWA had misplaced his luggage and he was stuck in his Draper Costume, as is his wont.

Pete – wearing his "lucky" blue suit – was desperate for a swim but Don reckoned their time would be better used schmoozing clients before the conference proper. Not long after, having first seen a Betty lookalike, Don was approached by Viscount Monteforte d'Alsace and his ladies, asking Don to join them for dinner.

With Pete preoccupied by seeing Tony Curtis ("Don, a thing like that!"), talk of the end of the world at the arms presentation encouraged Don to follow his libido and take Joy's (Joy!) offer of a trip to Palm Springs. Would he stay and talk shop with Pete – or disappear with the girl? He accepted, as is his wont.

We then had some odd scenes with Don mixing with Joy and the rootless Monteforte jet set at a Californian mansion. "Who are these people?" wondered Don on behalf of the audience about the ragtag bunch of old-money Eurotrash. They're trotting the globe living out a sexually and economically liberal lifestyle – they're like Midge's pals from series one, but with a boat in the harbour at Monaco. Hanging with the rootless, beautiful rich. Isn't this Don's fantasy?

I liked Don's fitting in and fitting out. He showed up his own background when he mentioned money and his football playing days – before redeeming himself with his knowledge in the name-the-city game. But even he was a bit spooked out when he discovered that the Viscount was Joy's father. Combined with the arrival of a man with his two children, this appeared to have kick-started Don back into the real world. We next saw him on the phone, presumably ringing Betty and the kids, but he introduced himself as Dick. Who was he speaking to?

His relationship with 21-year-old Joy provided a neat mirror to Roger's with Jane. Both men's power is teetering – Roger's about to get shafted by Mona, Don's about to get shafted by Duck – they're making wahey while the sun still shines.

A quick note on Don's collapse before we move on. The first scene of this series suggested that Don's health would be a major theme. It hasn't so far, so when he collapsed with heat exhaustion at the side of the pool I presumed it would be more serious than it was. As it was, it was just another layer of his master of the universe veneer peeled back. If he felt ill now, just wait until he gets back to Duck's anschluss of Sterling Cooper.

A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

Back in the office, beside Duck engineering a merger with PPL, Roger and Jane's intense relationship and Kinsey's travails down south, the main plot point was the tremor of a date between Peggy and Kurt, to see Bob Dylan. Peggy being Peggy, it went wrong – Kurt outed himself in the office, to the fratboy jeers of Harry and Ken and the arched eyebrow of Sal.

This news was obviously no big deal to Kurt's pal Smitty, or even to Ken and Harry, who despite their horrible sneering seemed over it by the time Pete returned. The elephant in the room though was Sal. He froze when Kurt told them he was gay – Bryan Batt's eyes said more about the attitude to homosexuality in the SC office than Cosgrove's homophobia ever could.

Peggy, meanwhile, has chosen the wrong boy again. But this time it does at least feel like she's the master of her own destiny – the staff defer to her now and it was her who approached Kurt – she just needs to find the right chap. The Draperisation of Peggy continued too with the Right Guard campaign – she's adamant that their existing campaign is worthwhile – much like Don is/was with Playtex. It's a rocky road, Peg – are you sure you want to drive the Cadillac down it?

"He's from Europe, it's different there"

The Jet Set, as the title suggested, was all about transatlanticism. The difference in attitudes between the nomadic Monteforte horde and the missing suitcase that is Don Draper; the difference in openness between Kurt and Sal; the impending culture clash that Duck's trying to engineer between his employers and perspective buyers PPL. It's been 17 years since the war and 15 since the Marshall Plan – Europe might not mean what it used to for the likes of Don and Roger for much longer.

Notes:Sal was casually thumbing a Playboy in the Right Guard meeting.

Duck's back off the wagon? Was tonight his first drink?

Some beautiful direction by Phil Abraham in the weapons presentation. The spooky shot following Jon Hamm's face as he collapsed was great too.

Peggy: (On Kurt taking her out) "If you have a man that you'd like to go to the concert with tonight, I completely understand."

Culture Watch:It's only been a matter of time before Bob Dylan was mentioned explicitly in Mad Men. Unsurprisingly it's young Kurt, who's been to see him play Carnegie Hall. Pembroke dropout Joy is reading The Sound and the Fury. It's "just OK", apparently. It won't be when she discovers the last page is ripped out. Who does that? Honestly.

Johnny Mathis sings What'll I Do? over the closing credits. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who had an unfortunate Birds of a Feather moment there.

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